Obsessions?

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Have any of you had 'obsessions' where it's all you can think about?! they mean everything to you?! things like that?

Because I have four really big obessions which I think about 24/7. Is that part of Aspergers or what?

Yes, however we tend to call them "special interests". Those are things you focus on more than other people would, you might even study them, become something of an amatuer expert. My interests include glassware (like drinking glasses), and fabric. I buy glassware even though there is no way I could ever use them. I have 182 glasses and I have a spreadsheet to help me categorize them by size, type, color and maker. I do the same with fabric.
No, I don't think about those things 24/7. I have a job that distracts me at least 8 hours/day. But everytime I'm out shopping, or getting the car washed or whatever I always find a way to a store that sells fabric or glasses.

Artwork, writing, building, high energy physics, metallurgy. I try to focus my special interests to things that will be helpful. Still mine arn't strong enough to make me think of them 24/7 more like 16/5

ya, perfectly normal. I've had one for as long as I can remember, time and watches (horology), and always have a few rotating ones that mix in and go out of mind for a while then back in (astronomy has always been big, not observing, but reading up on theories and physics). But you'll def. think about them a lot and like NQ you'll probably find a desire to catalog and organize them. When I was 9 years old I had my mom teach me Lotus back on her 486 so I could catalog all my baseball cards and then it was comics =P, I'm surprised it took till high school before they thought something was wrong, after having an obsession with wanting baseball cards not to collect and trade, but to want to organize them, and would spend an entire day when i felt that I didnt want to do it alphabetically anymore and wanted to back to by team or in order of who had the highest batting average to lowest. And I do that to this day. I have an exel spreadsheets for everything, like my DVD collection organized and catagorized by directors, actors, genre, year etc etc =P.

I've had one big obsession a few years, ago. It started in the month of December. That was three years ago, and I've gone on to other things.

I´m reading a book on "the economics of information" and when I read I want to learn everything I can about the subject... I take notes of the references cited in the book and organize them by subject so that in the future I can study these other references... I study the appendices and the the advanced material even if it is not required for the course...
It happens that the subject is kind of "deep" (at least for me) so it is hard to study many hours a day withouth a break.... but if I had free time and if I were motivated I would study more....
The funny thing is that having this kind of behaviour (which is at odd with what most people do (NT´s)) does not mean that you will perform well in the exam or during work since it involves many more variables......
At least you can show off your vast amount of knowledge about the subject.....

Wedge

And let's not forget my Christmas ornament organization compulsion. Yeah- even my doctor had to think about this one for a while....
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my strongest obession is games so i constantly look up for good games to come also thinking sometimes how to get advantage over someting in games most time i enjoy it but there has times when im just tired those times i tend to move my another obession bass!! !!

I just call it an OCD rather than a special interest as it dumbs it down making it seem less that what it is. Similar to saying to a shop-lifter, they do stock control.

I do sometimes have mini-obsessions where I spend up to a week or two on one subject, maybe a game where I play it for multiple hours or when I was literally playing the game all weekend, and I mean ALL weekend. The only time I stopped was to go to work.

I would say my thoughts on cars and computers rate very high. When something goes wrong I can most of of the time diagnose what it is before I open it up (it being computer or car, bonnet, whatever)

My view on OCD is that we tend to put all our lack of socialising skills into one place where we assert our energy. We make up for what we can not do. Depending on the obsession, we can save a lot of money too

My current "special interest" is the most intense one I've ever had, and it is pretty much all that I think about and want to talk about. My other three big "special interests" are intense, too, but not nearly as much as my current one. Yes, having obsessive interests is the hallmark symptom of AS, so if you have AS, it's more surprising if you don't have at least one major "special interest" that dominates your time and thinking.
-OddDuckNash99-

I suppose I have several special interests, but the one that dominates my thinking most of the time is the weather, primarily tornadoes (yeah, I know, big surprise). I watch tornado videos at least once a day on the net and I watch every tornado show on cable (if two are on at the same time, I DVR them), this includes both movies and documentaries. I've seen 'Twister' over 100 times (even though the ending is completely & totally unrealistic). I've read countless books on the subject. Second only to this is my writing and for some reason I've let up on that to make room for more tornado TV shows and video. It fades after a month or two and then I can focus on other things, but right now I'm caught in the grip of this obsession again. When I try not to think about it, tornadoes start showing up in my dreams.

There's no escape.

Last edited by Rainstorm5 on 17 Oct 2008, 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have "special interests" like that, too. Every few months, I'll get re-obsessed with them for awhile and it's all I focus on, but it dies down after a week or so. But my most intense "special interest" has been going on for three years now without ever stopping.
-OddDuckNash99-

I know where you're coming from. My weather obsession has been an off and on issue for me for over 30 years now (since I was a kid). It shows up out of nowhere (unprompted) and hangs on for 8 - 12 weeks and then fades. What you're saying about 're-obsessing' with a particular interest is definitely true.

Been there done that. All I could ever think about was Home Alone, Jurassic Park, 101 Dalmatians, A League of Their Own, Goldeneye (the game) and other things.


Now I have gotten better and can do other things and not think about it as much because my mind gets focused on other things. However my mother thinks I still have it. But when I was depressed, Benny & Joon and Spokane was all I ever thought about till I finally got settled to my new life.

I obsess and re-obsess. My current obsessions are skiing (both downhill and cross country) and my dogs (2, both female pugs). These obsessions have been ongoing for some time now. I periodically re-obsess about travel, specifically to Europe, and that re-obsessiong can go on for a couple weeks and then it will die off for awhile. My likely AS spouse obsesses too so at least in good company there. Others - no surprise on this one - think the way I obsess is quirky, like they view most of my personality traits

I have temporty obsessions about certain things of interest at certain time, such as : If there is a topic that I am interested in , I will obsess about it till I have an answer and have all the info that I want. Then I have obsessions about things that I think about more often, and i never tire of it , such as Kermit the Frog.